Hidden Resolve
by happyfacerajan
Summary: Hibari claims that resolve and irritation are the same thing, feeding into each other. We question if irritation alone could fuel his fire, and wonder if something else could help him get to a bigger, greater flame and resolve... Love?
1. Monster Flame

How can he have such a strong flame? It jumps and sways, getting bigger more glorious by the second, filling the battle grounds with a eery purple light. Yes, we know he said that irritation drives him, but that alone can't fuel his fire, can it? The soldiers before us shielded their eyes from Hibari's blinding light, slowly backing away before the thrashing flames. If anyone on our side was worried about the outcome of the battle, their fears burned away like the abandoned building surrounding us. Hibari's ring was glowing like hot metal, the air around us shimmering with heat we couldn't feel. Even from the view of a Family member, Hibari was terrifying and dangerous. Aggressiveness and tension followed him like a cloud that he was, stirring up fear like thunder to the rain. He was always itching for a fight, and the slightest irritation could set him off, striking at people in such the way as lightning bolting down from a dark and heavy cloud.

People questioned if he had any resolve, or if his will to fight was enough to kick up such a violent flame. Many disagree, but there is no way to know for sure without disturbing the peace between Carnivore and Herbivore, and no one pursues the subject. Resolve is so delicate, if slightly off the flame will react the same way. Resolve is also strong, if supported with your thoughts and feelings, the flame will perform at it's strongest. Even when Hibari unleashes him monster flame, everyone can feel that he is holding back, not yet pushed to his limit, maybe even far from it. From his point of view, his flame must be weak and brittle compared to what he knows he can do. Reborn tries to push him harder, drill him longer, but has failed to have Hibari's flame become any different from it's set place at a notch of six out of ten.

If we lost this battle, the girls would be killed. The threat was larger than anything we had ever encountered, defeating us with brute force. Haru and Kyoko were stuck in a cage hanging above a pit, and the pit emitted roars and ripping noises, usually following the sound of a human scream. Giving up Tsuna and the Arcobaleno were out of the question, but so was letting the two girls drop to the bottom of a black pit owned by a flesh-eating monster. The enemy was only going to let up on both options if we defeated them, that went without saying. We were down one member, leaving Hibari behind in the corridors to deal with oncoming soldiers. He didn't know about the girls or the pit, but no one could leave the room to go retrieve him from his place among the ones fighting outside. The clock was ticking, and the Family was a mess. Tsuna had almost given himself to the enemy, and the Arcobaleno were about to collapse from exhaustion. No one could bare to look at the two girls hanging in the metal cage, and the sounds from the pit were driving us to insanity. For each fifteen minutes wasted, the cage would go down six chain links, jarring the girls and leaving the cage swaying. We were all injured, trying to make sure our flames didn't go out. Most of us didn't hear the doors swing open with a bang, or even notice Hibari was among us until we saw purple light beginning to seep into every dark corner of the room. Looking up, the light was surrounding Hibari's body, as if his body was made of concentrated clouds it's self. No one moved as Hibari's ring glowed, nor when the flames started to blind us. We had all seen this before, and we knew that it wasn't enough to defeat our enemy. Right when we predicted the peak of his power, he spoke. He didn't shout or whisper, just spoke to us as if we were back at the base, discussing what to do about the broken alarm system.

"Who let this happen?" No one spoke. The chains hovering Haru and Kyoko above the pit loosened, and it slipped closer to the pit. Hibari's jaw clenched tightly.

"Was it them?" Hibari asked, shooting a look at the enemy's leader standing cockily on the other side of the room.

"I'm surprised you can still stand, with the wounds you've endured." The man said. Hibari closed his eyes, then opened them suddenly when he heard the sound of metal rattling. Haru grasped one of the bars on the cage, pulling herself to her feet, exposing the burns on her knees and calves. The cage had been charged with some kind of electrical charge, and any part of the cage, including the bottom, burned anyone who touched them. Her voice carried to where we were, sounding defeated and scared to the point of tears.

"Kyoya Hibari! Please... I don't want to loose you..." He bent her head down, tears flowing freely from her eyes.

"Please! Survive! I love you..." She cried out. Her body wavered, and she collapsed on the floor of the cage. Kyoko was sobbing, her legs and arms also burned. Hibari's flames ceased for a millisecond, and all sound stopped. His flames came back, this time consuming him completely. His whole body turned purple, and a blast of pure power blew through the room, knocking everyone off their feet.

"Don't you dare lower the cage." Hibari said. His tone was no longer calm and contained, it was strong and deadly. None of us had seen this side of Hibari, and we were all scared of him. We feared him more than we already did, we feared him like we feared our enemy.

"Watch me." The chain was lowered, but this time it was lowered until right above the pit. Kyoko and Haru's cry of pain was heard, followed by a new round of sobs. Tsuna looked to the cage and started crying silent tears. His usually bright orange flame was small and barely seen in the overpowering brightness of Hibari's purple cloud flames. Hibari couched down to Roll and lightly tapped his on the nose. Roll's body started to transform into a pair of handcuffs, but the handcuffs look slightly different than how Alaude's handcuffs were. There were more spikes, and they were larger and thinker than they were before. No matter, we needed Hibari, and it didn't matter what form he was in.

"No one hurts her." He said. He moved towards the man on the other side of the room, each step leaving an indentation in the stone floor. The enemy soldiers fired a round of bullets at Hibari, but they all burned to a crisp before going even four feet into Hibari's flames. In one jump, Hibari landed in front of the leader, clearing more than 500 feet.

"I don't know how they couldn't defeat you. You're so easy." Hibari said. The man gulped and tried to get away, but Hibari clamped handcuffs to his wrists.

"Let me repeat something," Hibari continued. He raised his tonfas, showing blades on the sides. The gleamed in the light of the flames, and he lowered them to the man's throat.

"No one hurts her. If you do, I'll bite you to death." And with that, in one swift move, Hibari beheaded the enemy we had almost lost to. The man's body fell a few seconds later than the head, and Hibari kicked it into the pit. The cloud flames began to die down, and Hibari's knees buckled. He caught himself on a wall, and made his way to the cage were Kyoko and Haru were. He tried to open the cage, but they didn't move. Gokudera put one of his bombs on he sides on the cage, and the bars exploded. Hibari leaned down and scooped up Haru in his arms. She sobbed and clutched onto his shirt, burying her face in his shirt.

"Shhh... Haru... You're okay now..." Hibari's horrifying, ragged voice was gone, replaced with a soft, almost commanding voice I had never heard before. Haru's sobs quieted down, and she fell asleep in his arms.

So what is his resolve? Some people still think that his fighting spirit is enough to carry him to where he wants to go, but they haven't seen the Hibari that we've seen. Among us in the Family, we no longer have long conversations about Hibari's hidden motive, his hidden resolve. It's plain enough to see, and those who don't know wouldn't understand. Hibari's resolve is protecting who he loves. His resolve is protecting Haru.

**Hope you enjoyed! This is my first one-shot, so I really hope you liked _ Which couple should I do next? GokuderaXUri, BelphegorXFran, ShoichiXSpanner (genderbend), or I-pinXLambo (10 years later)? Please leave which one you want in the reviews XD!**


	2. Caring Flame

If you've ever met her, you know what I'm talking about when I say she's a lot to take in at once. She can switch her personality at will, confusing anyone around her as to which emotion they should feel concerning her. On second glance, she might just be one of those crazy girls who has a passion for cosplay. One of those annoying girls with celebrity crushes and posters lined on their walls. No one in the Family thinks of her like that of course. We know her more than most, and we know that she isn't anything like those girls. She's so enthusiastic about everything she does, it makes people wonder where she gets her energy and hope. Even trapped in a cage, she explained to us that she knew she wouldn't die. She has never believed in God, and to her, God's take on sins is just a misunderstanding. If people never try something new, if people never take risks, how will you ever know if you are missing out on a section of life? If you are always making sure you don't have any 'sins', how can you have any fun? Her parents believe in God, her relatives believe in God, so where does she get her wise quotes? She may seem like an airhead and a careless joyful soul, but everyone has a secret side that only their closest friends know about. We can't tell which one of her many personalities are really who she truly is, unless she really is all of them?

How did they come to meet? How did they come to like each other? How did they become lovers? Questions we have about them that we don't really know how to answer, and even in the depths of our imagination we couldn't have imagined Hibari and Haru being together as a couple. Now that it is obvious, none of us know how it could be different. They fit each other like gloves, but gloves that were picked in the dark, mismatched and of different sizes.

How does she do it? Hard, commanding, controlling Hibari to soft, calm, contained Hibari? She's the only one who can make the change, flip his switch. He's the only one who she lets hold her, to stroke her hair. They were made for each other, even though none of us could see it before it was in front of our faces.


End file.
